Miniature circular blackened bronze medal with integral loop for ribbon suspension; the face with a female head in winged helmet facing left, representative of Italy, signed ‘S J’ for Stefano Johnson of Milan; the reverse inscribed ‘ISTITUTO / INTERUNIVERSITARIO / ITALIANO’; slight age oxidisation spots to the reverse; diameter 18.94mm (0.75 inch); on replaced ribbon. The Italian Inter-University Institute was founded in March 1923 by ‘the philosopher of Fascism', Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) as a not-for-profit association of Italian higher education institutions with the aim of promoting Italian culture and intellectual cooperation. It was suppressed by Royal Decree 401 of 14 March 1938. Gentile became Minister of Public Education in the government of Benito Mussolini in 1923 and made significant lasting reforms to Italian secondary education. Loyal to Mussolini to the end, he was assassinated by partisans in Florence in 1944.